D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is taking a step that will prevent an already difficult 30-day federal government shutdown from getting even worse for tens of thousands of households.
The District will use its own money to cover the cost of food benefits received by Washingtonians under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Women, Infants, and Children Program, she announced on Thursday evening. Combined, the programs offer assistance to more than 150,000 low-income residents each month.
Federal funding for the programs are expected to lapse over the weekend, meaning that people across the country who get the food benefits won’t receive their allotments starting next week. The average payment to the 141,000 D.C. residents who get SNAP is $314 a month.
Bowser said that the city will use its rainy day funds to cover that cost for November, which will total about $29 million. WIC, which goes to 12,500 residents, will cost another $1.5 million.
Nationwide, some 42 million Americans get SNAP benefits. And while a federal contingency fund exists to cover situations like a government shutdown, the Trump administration said that it will not be using that money to pay for the benefits.
That prompted a lawsuit by some two-dozen states and the District. On Thursday, a federal judge seemed inclined toward forcing the administration to use the contingency funding, but no ruling had been issued by the end of the day.
D.C. officials have been discussing what to do should federal funding lapse for SNAP for at least a week. Bowser conceded that losing the benefits would be “devastating” for the D.C. residents who receive them, but internally her aides worried that the city could not cover the cost for more than a month and may not get reimbursed by the federal government should it do so. Earlier this week, they considered a number of other options, including funneling more city money to the Capital Area Food Bank to help increase its food distribution should SNAP funding lapse.
But that wouldn’t cover the existing need, CAFB CEO Radha Muthiah told The 51st. “For every meal that a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine,” she said earlier this week. “The magnitude of the SNAP program is significant.”
D.C. officials have also worried about the economic impact of a lapse in funding for SNAP, on top of the hit the city is already taking because of the shutdown. According to Bowser’s office, every dollar in federal SNAP benefits generates $1.54 in economic activity. (The city has 420 SNAP retailers.)
Amid the raft of political changes over the past year, Muthiah said that food providers across D.C. have seen a spike in demand, largely from the “cascading effect of these federal policy shifts, including the layoffs, the furloughs, and anxiety around SNAP.” She said the level of food insecurity is 36 percent across the region, but 41 percent among federal workers or contractors who have been laid off this year.
At Martha’s Table, which has locations in Ward 1 and Ward 8, visits to its food pantry have increased 47 percent this year, according to a spokesperson.
“We know that SNAP and WIC play a critical role in helping thousands of Washingtonians, and millions of Americans, put food on the table each month,” Bowser said in a statement. “We were hopeful it wouldn’t come to this – and we still need the federal government to reopen as soon as possible – but for right now, we’re moving forward to ensure we take care of D.C. residents in November.”
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